As we mentioned a couple weeks ago, we're in the middle of full-on canning season. About 10 days ago, our CSA added tomatoes to its unlimited U-pick list. And that was all we needed: We reserved a Zipcar for the next morning, and by 6 a.m. last Friday, we were standing in the middle of rows and rows of fragrant tomato plants.
You guys know the drill with canning tomatoes, and hopefully you've seen the (epic!) film. But we wanted to share some snapshots from our 2012 tomato-canning experience. It covered the better part of the weekend. (Thanks to a carbon monoxide alarm scare, we had to abort the process midway through and clear out while we waited for a technician to come check out the stove. It turned out to be a false alarm, which is what we'd figured. But when two different carbon monoxide detectors in your house start emitting warnings, well, you pay attention.)
Anyway, enjoy all the action of our 2012 tomato-canning adventure. Come for the bloodbath! Stay for the 29 quarts of successfully canned tomatoes!
Picking tomatoes at dawn in the rain is actually much more pleasant than it sounds.
Here we go...
Blanching and ice-watering to make them easier to peel...
Peeled and ready for the jars.
We used every bowl we could find (including, yes, our KitchenAid mixer bowl and a pitcher with a whale on it).
Another shot of the tomatoes ready to can.
Some of the final product!
We didn't can all our tomatoes. Some of them we slow-roasted with onion and garlic to make sauce to freeze.
Other Tomato Canning Posts You May Find Useful:
Canning Tomatoes How To: Tomatoes Packed in Water
Our First Experience Canning Tomatoes
Easy Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce
